[LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.* 

J FORCE COLLECTION.] i 

| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 






AN ADDRESS 



DESIGNED TO ENFORCE THE IMPORTANCE OF 

SANCTIFIED LEARNING AND HOME INSTITUTIONS 
TO THE SOUTH, 

DELIVERED FRIDAY, JUNE 30th, 1848, 

BEFORE THE 

AM0S0PHIC AND PHI-GAMMA SOCIETIES, 

COKESBURY INSTITUTE, S. C, 




A." MEANS,. A.M., M.D., 

Professor of Phys. Sci. in Emory College, and Prof, of Chem. and Pharm. in the 
Medical College of Georgia. 



1867 

CHARLESTON : 

PRINTED BY BURGES & JAMES. 
109 East- Bay. 

1848. 



j, cm 

-H4 



AMOSOPHIC HALL, 30th JUNE, 1848. 

Prof. Means : 

Rev. and Dear Sir, 

We, the undersigned, claim the honor to be a committee delegated to act as 
the organ of the Amosophic Society, in returning their heartfelt thanks to you for the very 
able, eloquent and pious Address delivered before them this afternoon, and requesting a copy 
of the same for publication, that its virtuous precepts may be more widely diffused, and its 
salutary influence more extensively felt. 

It would be vain for us to attempt an expression of the delight and high sense of gratifica- 
tion experienced in listening to your very profound and truly interesting discourse. We, with 
our compeers, feel ourselves highly honored and richly compensated by the intellectual feast 
enjoyed, and hope you a happy Godspeed to the bosom of your family. 



We are, dear sir, yours very respectfully, 



W. C. BASS, 

E. T. EDGERTON, 

J. P. KINARD. 



COKESBURY, S. C, JULY 1st, 1848. 

Messrs W. C. Bass, E. T. Edgerton, J. P. Kinard, 

Committee of the Amosophic Society : 
Gentlemen, 

Your kind communication of the 30th ult. is now before me, in which you 
have been pleased to request a copy of the Address which I had the honor to deliver before 
the two Societies of your flourishing Institution, on yesterday. Yielding to the counsels and 
opinions of others, and especially to your polite and urgent request, I have concluded to fore- 
go my own honest scruples as to the propriety of its publication, and have, therefore, submit- 
ted the manuscript to your disposal. 

Should it contribute in any degree to aid the great interests which it advocates, I shall be sin- 
cerely gratified. 
With sincere respect for yourselves, and for the Society which you represent, 

I am, Gentlemen, 

Yours truly, 

A. MEANS. 



ADDRESS. 



In obedience to an unexpected call from your flour- 
ishing Institution, a call which neither my views of 
courtesy nor of kindness would allow me to reject, I 
have consented to suspend for a time the claims of 
professional duty, to enjoy the grateful privilege of 
mingling with the friends of Literature, Science, and 
Religion, in a sister State ; and of, at least, pledging 
them a hearty " God-speed" in the great and praise- 
worthy enterprize, which has this day commanded the 
presence of the brilliant assembly before me. Long 
accustomed as I have been to the companionship, and 
familiar with the interests and sympathies of the young, 
a scene like the present awakens within me no ordina- 
ry emotions. The exhilarating influence of a hundred 
youthful faces, beaming with intelligence and bright 
with joy, as they hail the return of this annual jubilee 
in their scholastic history, cannot but arouse a thou- 
sand stirring recollections. Not only sober manhood, 
but even hoary age, forgetting the waste and ravages 
of intervening years, again revels in memory's haunts 
among the thrilling incidents of Academic days. But 
these pleasing reminiscences of the past are quickly 
succeeded by ardent hopes and anxious fears in re- 
gard to the future. Adventurous thought takes wing, 
and visions of coming years rise fast upon the view. 
These gay spirits and elastic forms are seen in distant 
perspective in the grave maturity of life, among the 



busy multitudes that throng the marts of commerce, 
crowd the ranks of the learaed professions, and from 
council-chambers and executive chairs, control the 
destinies of this great nation ; then overlooking in its 
towering magnificence the new-born Republics, just 
rising from the ruins of falling dynasties and dismem- 
bered kingdoms in the old world. While the less am- 
bitious and obtrusive, but the more interesting and 
lovely of the inspiring group before me, are beheld 
crowned with the responsibility of matronly honors, 
and in the retirement of the nursery or the closet, 
moulding the young hearts of a thousand confiding 
listeners, and leaving the imperishable impress of 
maternal virtue and piety upon the infant farmers, 
philosophers and statesmen of a succeeding age. 

The contemplations of the future, then, are more 
natural and appropriate on such an occasion, than the 
recollections of the past. 

What philanthropist can survey the wonderful de- 
velopments of mental and moral activity which charac- 
terize the current history of the nineteenth century, 
and then remember that the vast momentum already 
acquired, and which now so effectually moves the 
complicated machinery of the scientific, political and 
religious world, — must not only be maintained, but (to 
keep pace with the progressive economy of the age,) 
largely accelerated by the accumulating elements of 
power, soon to emerge from the teeming halls of the 
schools and colleges of our land, — without feeling, that 
to the patronage and prosperity of such institutions, 
the interests of his posterity and the weal of coming 
generations, should solemnly pledge him. 

In the providence of God, we have been thrown 
upon eventful times. The world is alive with enter- 



prize, and mind, stimulated by the rapid and stupen- 
dous discoveries of recent years, has voluntarily taxed 
its utmost capabilities, upon the great subjects of 
science and of civil legislation ; and sweeping onward 
in its successful and glowing career, continues to 
evolve new and astonishing contributions to everv 
department of the arts, agriculture and commerce. 
The very spirit of the age is favorable to the expan- 
sion and elevation of human intellect. Liberalized, 
chastened and sublimed in its far-reaching views, by 
the lofty themes and pervading energy of our holy 
Religion ; it has at length comprehended nothing less 
than the physical and moral universe, as the field of 
its action, and the social happiness and immortal wel- 
fare of the earth's intelligent millions, as the noble 
objects of its concern. 

We occupy our appropriate place in the grand caval- 
cade of nations, and under the mighty impulses of 
the age, are moving on in solemn procession with 
their expectant hosts, to test the revelations of the 
wonderful future. But, while in common with our 
race, we press onward to an unseen and distant goal, 
anxious for the disclosure of our destiny, let us timely 
learn the invaluable truth, that we make that destiny as 
we move. Nor shall the clear outline be traced, nor 
the truthful canvass complete, until, like our great pro- 
totype, — when the last blow is struck, and the last 
energy expended, we may look back from eternity's 
threshold, and in dying accents exclaim, "It is finished!" 

What part then, are we to act in this vast system of 
things, where the social relationships and dependen- 
cies of life, involve not only our own, but the fortunes 
of our fellows, — where no man is without an influence 
decidedly effective upon the destiny of others, and 



where countless inducements perpetually invite to the 
exercise of intelligence, industry and zeal? I speak 
to a people who bow deferentially to the Divinity of 
the Scriptures, whose venerated ancestors recognized 
the sublime system of morals which they inculcate, 
and wrought them into the very frame-work of the 
government, which, for the last two-thirds of a centu- 
ry, has given stability and grandeur to the great Ame- 
rican Republic Let the voice of Revelation then de- 
cide this vital question. Hear it : " What thy hand 
findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no 
work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the 
grave whither thou goest." Guided by this high au- 
thority, therefore, it behooves us to examine our posi- 
tion and prepare for effective action. All human en- 
terprizes of magnitude and importance, depend for 
their accomplishment and success upon intellectual 
power ; hence, in prosecuting the great scientific dis- 
coveries of the age, mind has been launched under a 
press of canvass, and strained from mast to keel, in 
cleaving the resisting floods before it. Let not the 
christian world then, overlook its resources, or slumber 
over still loftier interests. The time has come, when 
sanctified intellect should enter upon the career of 
scientific investigation. Even now a prurient philoso- 
phy too often rushes unbaptized upon the work of re- 
search in earth and heaven, learnedly upholding Na- 
ture's laws, but irreverently perverting her simple 
truths, and bribing facts to the support of atheisti- 
cal dogmas. She, nevertheless, treads consecrated 
ground— rambles amid the paths of Divinity, and is, 
ever and anon, startled by the visible foot-steps of a 
God. Shall the christian then refuse to enter these 
holy walks, and guard them from the sacriligious im- 



print of profane feet ? Surely, No. The learning of 
the Church should at least continue pari passu, with 
the learning of the world. Nor do we mean merely 
theological lore, but general learning in the broad and 
comprehensive sense of the term. As well to guard 
against the intrusions of speculative theorists, and huck- 
stering creed-mongers, as to foil the attacks of Infi- 
delity from her boasted intrenchments, and to enforce 
and illustrate the sublime truths of Revelation. This 
we hold to be the more necessary, because Christianity 
is not to be regarded as the upstart progeny of an 
hour, sprung upon the world under the pressure of 
emergencies, and having but a partial connexion with 
its history, or a limited adaptation to its wants ; but 
as a part and parcel of the present grand economy of 
the universe — inseparably blended with the character 
and destiny of the physical and moral world ; and 
hence, the diversified improvements of the age, as but 
subordinate agencies, auxiliary to the accomplishment 
of one vast systematic whole. The store-houses of 
Christianity, then, must garner, and her disciples ap- 
propriate the facts of science as well as of theology. 
Her God is the God of the natural as well as the mo- 
ral world; and she is legitimately entitled to all the 
harvests which cultivated mind may reap from these 
luxuriant fields. It is unworthy of the immortal cause 
they advocate, that the defenders of the christian faith 
should stand by with folded arms and vacant stare, 
and stupidly witness, and then with culpable obstinacy 
effect to disbelieve the astounding developments of 
this prolific age, when science is making the tour of 
the universe, and constantly reporting the authenticated 
wonders of her exploration from planets, and suns, 
and systems,— lest, forsooth, they should chance to 



10 

disturb the Rip Van Winkle slumbers of some grey- 
bearded superstition, or challenge the correctness of 
some antiquated theological notion. This dogged and 
persistent scepticism will not repress the onward spirit 
of investigation. It is already kindled into a resistless 
flame, whose brightness illumines the nations, and he 
who foolishly dares to obstruct its path, may expect to 
be consumed by its breath. But our Heaven-born 
Religion needs no such sacrifice — asks no such inter- 
ference. To admit it, would be an inglorious, humilia- 
ting, and unwarranted concession made to her enemies. 
Whatever her timorous and superstitious friends may 
have formerly feared, Revelation dreads no disclosures 
from the physical world, but rather courts the severest 
scrutiny of a candid philosophy. Nay, in these latter 
days, Science has learned to offer her smoking incense, 
and pour her free libations upon her sacred altars, and 
bids earth, and air, and sky, do homage at her shrine. 
Christianity has business of moment to transact 
with the whole world, and is, therefore, authorized in 
the divine accomplishment of her purpose, to levy 
upon every available instrumentality which that world 
furnishes. But when, in the mysterious economy of 
infinite wisdom, she first made her advent among the 
nations, in order that she might command respect, se- 
cure confidence, and inspire becoming reverence, it 
was indispensable that her approach should be signal- 
ized by palpable demonstrations of Divinity, neither 
to be attributed to the influence of wealth, the autho- 
rity of power, nor the resources of erudition. The 
philosophy, scepticism, and hypocritical sophistries of 
the age, must be struck dumb by an unearthly outburst 
of pomp, majesty, and wisdom, from the humble home 
of poverty, and the neglected abodes of ignorance. 



11 

The eternal, uncreated originality of its claims, must 
stand confessed amid the overwhelming exhibitions of 
mental profoundness, moral grandeur, and miraculous 
control over the elements of nature, unsparingly pre- 
sented to a confounded world, and transcendently sur- 
passing the known results of all finite causes. 

A poor, pretentionless, and untitled man suddenly 
rising from the obscurity of a plebeian family and an 
humble trade, must boldly . proclaim the Messiah's 
opening reign — stand upon the high places of Zion, 
and display the august emblazonry of the coming 
kingdom of God, and surrounded by the thongs, and 
flames, and crucifixes of godless thousands, thirsting 
for his blood, — must grapple with hoary Superstition 
in his strong holds, — shake the stately fabric of Hea- 
then philosophy to its trembling foundations, and up- 
turn the stale, antiquated dogmas of Rabbinism; rear- 
ing upon their ruins the most magnificent system of 
morals the world ever saw. He must connect him- 
self, too, by wonderful acts, with the long chain of 
Bible prophecies. Miracle after miracle must indicate 
the presence and identify the power of that Divinity 
which in former time dwelt in awful grandeur amid 
the glowing tents of Israel ; opened a triumphal high- 
way through the cleft and yielding seas, and arrested 
the sun in mid-heaven over the beleagured heights of 
Gibeon. Hence, under his outstretched arm and open- 
ing lips, the wild hurricane must die upon the air, and 
the storm-lashed wave sleep on the sea : the unaccus- 
tomed tomb disgorge its dead, and the new pulse of 
life beat strongly under the winding sheet. And finally, 
when human mafrce and fiendish hate have spent their 
last hot bolts, and the cross holds its glorious victim, 
even then, earth must agonize and heave under the suf- 



12 

ferings of her God ; and weeping Nature throw the 
drapery of mourning' over the sunless skies. The 
guarded sepulchre must rock with an earthquake's 
throes, and angels and men shout the resurrection 
triumph of the Lord of Glory, while gazing multitudes 
trace the flight of the cloud-borne conquerer to his na- 
tive Heavens. 

And last of all, the inspired Twelve, who had stood 
nearest to his person, and caught the light of his glory, 
must prove by supernal wonders the delegation of his 
power — seal their testimony with their blood, and close 
the age of miracles. And now, when the indestructible 
impress of Divinity has been openly stamped upon 
the grand economy of the Gospel ; when the earth is 
announced as the field of its conflicts, and the arena 
of its future victories ; when the souls of men are 
alike the subjects of its concern and the rewards of 
its labor : the varied and ample resources of science, 
and the loftiest efforts of human genius, are none too 
much to be taxed in furthering the progress of the 
stupendous scheme, and are, indeed, the legitimate 
auxiliaries designed to be employed by the hand of 
heaven in effecting the sublime ends of its mercy. 

But the human mind must be trained by gradual 
and systematic advances to the attainment of its ut- 
most capabilities, both for extensive action and refined 
enjoyment. And yet its very elevation and enlarge- 
ment, if it be left unsanctified by the spirit of piety, 
and unmoulded by the morals of the Bible, will but 
augment its power to curse. The heaviest blows 
which have ever been directed against the ramparts 
of Christianity, have been struck from the heights of 
learning. Men of gifted and cultivated intellect, who 
felt their vain-glorious ambition rebuked, and their 



13 

licentious passions restrained by the dicta of her pure 
and guileless laws, have grossly perverted their ac- 
knowledged powers, marshalled to their aid the sup- 
ports of literature, and entered upon a relentless cru- 
sade against her godly institution. Such minds, proud- 
ly conscious of their individual superiority over the 
less instructed, but purer masses, push boldly and un- 
scrupulously on to the accomplishment of their grace- 
less purposes, until, by the dexterously wielded subtle- 
ties of a sceptical logic, and the garbled and distorted 
representations of physical laws, the illiterate and 
simple-hearted multitude, imbecile and defenceless 
against the learned attack, are startled, confounded, 
and overcome, and passively yield up the treasured 
faith of their forefathers, without a struggle. 

No wonder that when the genius of a people has 
been polluted by the lawless spirit of Infidelity, and 
their noblest minds have been infected with the taint, 
that public virtue should be cut loose trom its moorings, 
their political institutions want security and strength ; 
and anarchy and libertinism, like the smouldering fires 
of a sleeping volcano, ever and anon, convulse the 
government to its centre, and perpetually threaten the 
desolating lava- tide of fierce revolution, followed by 
all the evils of national dismemberment. It was when 
the powerful and disciplined pens of the French En- 
cyclopaedists, sustained by their intellectual co-labora- 
tors in the world of letters, boldly challenged the 
authenticity of the Scriptures, and openly defamed the 
sanctity of their laws, that mankind were called to 
witness the fearful spectacle of a sensualized nation, 
without morals and without a God ; prostituted, bleed- 
ing, and blasted under the unbridled reign of their 
own lusts, and scourged by the retributive justice of 



14 

insulted Heaven. How solemn a realization of the 
mythological fable ! a reckless Phaeton had mounted 
the chariot of the sun, and the smoking wheels and 
flying steeds were spreading confusion through the 
skies, when Jupiter's thunder hurled the madman from 
his seat, and saved heaven and earth from a profounder 
catastrophe. But these politico-religious agitators are 
gone. This age of horror is passed, and France is 
recovering from her deadly shock. A bloodless revo- 
lution is already achieved under the guidance of the 
mild spirit of La Martine and his compatriots, and the 
perpetuity and power of the new Republic, may be 
fairly graduated by the cast of its future morals. In 
view of our premises, therefore, we avow, that in this 
and every future age, Christianity expects within her 
ranks, defenders who shall meet these skilled and 
panoplied sceptics with their own weapons, and upon 
their own fields, and to prove the universality of her 
reign over the empire of knowledge, tenders the ex- 
hausted resources both of the natural and moral world 
to vindicate the power of truth, and the glories of im- 
mortality. Pointing to the riddled shield of the great 
infidel tactician of England, she bids the future Paleys, 
and Campbells, and Keiths, and Chalmers of the 
Church, prepare from the same arsenal for the defeat 
of similar antagonists. 

We rejoice then, to behold the extensive educational 
plans, which at present distinguish most of the nations 
of Christendom, and to record the long catalogue of 
immortal worthies, who, with an unfaltering faith and 
ardent zeal, have issued from the quiet retreats of 
learning, — cultured, mature, and powerful to defend 
truth and expose error. Men, before whose enlighten- 
ed moral power, burning eloquence, and overwhelming 



15 

argument, the practised veterans of a sceptical philo- 
sophy, and the vulgar weaklings of a revolting Atheism ? 
have alike cowered and fallen like Dagon before the 
ark. Education in its noblest, most exalted sense, is 
designed to be a consecrated instrumentality of heaven, 
to enlarge the sphere of its spiritual reign and multi- 
ply the number of its conquests ; and when under the 
dominion of a sound faith and expansive charity, its 
brilliant contributions coming in from the fathomless 
depths of earth to the far off heights of yon blazing 
skies, wake up the human mind to angelic aspirations — 
widen the sweep of its vast horizon, and as century 
after century rolls away, must continue to reveal to a 
convinced and repentant race, the eternal identity of 
the God of Creation with the Christ of Revelation ; for 
the grand panorama shall not be complete till the 
truths of the natural and moral world in a thousand 
new and ravishing- combinations shall blend their ex- 
alted beauties to attest the divinity of the world's Mes- 
siah. Then shall be realized the prophetic exclama- 
tion of the enraptured king of Israel, (Ps. cxlv. 10, 
11, 12,) "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and 
thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the 
glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power. To 
make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and 
the glorious majesty of his kingdom." 

Here let us not be misunderstood. We hold no 
affiliation with those misguided visionaries, who expect 
to expurgate the world's vices by the frigid and inope- 
rative precepts of a worldly philosophy, or to witness 
the spread of scriptural holiness and the ant ; cipated 
reign of Gospel truth under the blind guidance of un- 
sanctified learning. No, never! Christianity is an 
energizing superaddition to the elements of the moral 



16 

world, and depends for its present success and future 
glory upon nothing less than God. Its magnificent 
arch, like the glorious hemispheres of Saturn's rings 
which adorn his nightly skies, spans in splendor the 
moral heavens, unchanged in brilliancy from age to 
age ; and all the subsequent contributions of science 
have but served, like Dolland's improved glasses when 
directed to that girdled anomaly of the skies, to dis- 
cern and develop beauties and consistencies in the 
stupendous organization, hitherto concealed from the 
vulgar eye, and still imparting new charms and win- 
ning new admirers, as successive generations roll 
away. This high characteristic is beautifully symbol- 
ized in the physical universe. The electric fluid 
whose wonderful and potential presence, probably per- 
vades the entire solar system, has acquired no new 
properties or capabilities by the lapse of centuries, but 
shone as brilliantly in the Northern Aurora, and flash- 
ed as fiercely upon the bosom of the storm-cloud, in 
the day when the patriaich floated on the floods, as 
since the great American philosopher brought it from 
the clouds, or Morse made it news-bearer to an aston- 
ished world. Then all the means furnished by human 
knowledge for the maintainance and propagation of 
our holy Religion, are not to be regarded as generators 
of moral power, but merely as new lines of action for 
the circulation of its original forces. 

Who, then, in past ages have been the most efficient 
champions of the Church? Who have stood first and 
firmest to breast the bolts of intolerant superstition, 
malignant infidelity, and grovelling sensualism, and 
maintain her temples pure from the intrusion of pro- 
fane feet, and her doctrines inviolate from the assaults 
of ruthless hands'? Yonder stand the sainted host 



17 

ready for the inspection of posterity. Let truthful 
history proclaim their names and record their worth. 

The age of the Reformation is strikingly marked by 
the controlling influence exerted by men of letters, 
(who were mostly arrayed on the side of that great 
movement,) over the destinies of all Europe, and of 
unborn millions in both hemispheres. The faithful 
and learned Wickliffe, who about the middle of the 
fourteenth century struck the first effective blow, and 
by his writings and eloquence, shook the gates of papal 
Rome, issued from the halls of Queen's College in 
England. His great Bohemian convert who seized 
his falling mantle, and at the forfeiture of life, exposed 
the dangerous assumptions of Roman power, was a 
preacher of sanctified erudition, and John Huss himself 
took his degree in the University of Prague. The 
friend and pupil of Huss, the martyred Jerome, whose 
learning and zeal provoked the fatal decree of the 
Council of Constance, and whose songs of triumph 
ascended to heaven upon the flames that consumed 
him, was intellectually trained at Heidleberg, Cologne 
and Oxford. But opening twilight grows brighter 
still as we approach the sun-rise of the Reformation. 
Another glowing mind is seen upon the distant horizon. 
Reuchlin appears. This paragon of learning and 
terror of the Roman See who " took off the seals from 
the ancient Scriptures, and made himself a name more 
enduring than brass," was a distinguished alumnus of 
the then most celebrated schools in the West — the 
University of Paris. The amiable Melancthon,— Reuch- 
lin's immortal pupil and the illustrious friend of the 
great German Reform, wore the scholastic honors of 
Tubingen at the very opening of his useful career. 
High in the republic of letters and the cause of Reli- 



IS 

gion, is next seen the able Erasmus, the associate and 
coadjutor of Luther ; and then rose the central sun of 
the Reformation. But the once cloistered monk of 
St. Augustine, was also a man of rich and diversified 
attainments, and at one time a lecturer on philosophy 
in the ancient University of Wittemberg. Nor should 
we omit to name the great Geneva Reformer, who 
succeeded Luther, and who, without an attempt to vin- 
dicate the entire orthodoxy of his views, was, beyond 
question, a giant in the field of controversy, and ac- 
quired his great logical acumen in the colleges of de 
la Marche and Montaign. 

But we delay too long. Let memory leap the chasm 
of two hundred years and light upon the great revival 
age, when a few gifted and holy men, issuing from 
several of the sister colleges of Oxford, revived the 
dormant and almost extinguished fires of piety in the 
Christian Church, and fanned them to a brilliant flame. 
Foremost in this group of immortal men, — a polished 
scholar, profound theologian, and powerful pulpit ad- 
vocate, — stood the venerated form of the founder of 
Methodism, providentially destined to a fame as death- 
less as the oodlv doctrines which for four score years call- 
ed out the tireless energies of his great soul, and which, 
in the nineteenth century, still burn with undimmed 
lustre upon the altars of our wide spread connection, 
and promise to burn on forever. 

Injustice has been done by partial historians, — foul 
injustice, both to the origin and character of our be- 
loved Methodism. The misguided and the prejudiced 
have long been taught to regard it as the offensive 
spawn of an ignorant and superstitious religionism ; 
or as at best, but the sickly and spoilt bantling of an 
overweening clerical ambition. Whereas if any great 



19 

ecclesiastical movement within the last thee centuries, 
has ever been peculiarly characterized in its incipiency 
and early progress by the lights of learning and the 
unction of grace, it has been the unexampled reforma- 
tory impulse given the Church by Wesley and his com- 
peers. Methodism, it is true, was doomed to the birth 
of the illustrious son of Amram. It drew its first 
breath under the jealous proscriptions of power ; was 
driven from the places of pomp and patronage where 
the pampered Pharaohs dwelt, to float in its fragile ark 
of bulrushes upon the threatening waters, until the 
God of the infant on the Nile, restored it to the mater- 
nal bosom to be reared to vigor and manhood by the 
wisdom and the learning of the ablest of the age. 
The Wesleys, Fletchers and Cokes — Watsons, Clarks 
and Bensons, who have graced its early years with the 
contributions of their literature and the impress of 
their piety, should forever relieve it, in the judgment 
of an honest world, from the charge of a vagrant and 
illiterate origin, and are enough to confer dignity and 
respect upon any progeny or protoge recommended to 
its confidence. 

But a century has rolled away. Methodism has 
raised her altars upon almost every soil, and the acti- 
vity and zeal which are the native elements of her 
character, have made her the pioneer of the wilderness 
wherever she has gone. Her literature, it is confessed, 
was for years less cultivated than her self-denial and 
moral heroism in the great work of human salvation. 
But a new era has dawned. Steady prosperity has 
marked her career, and her millionary host now wor- 
ship under every sun. Her devotion and her toils have 
won the respect of mankind, and she is awarded at 
least a respectable position among the sister churches 



20 

of the land. And now, to meet the educational wants 
of the rising thousands of her sons and daughters, 
colleges and primary schools, established under her 
auspices, are throwing wide their portals, and opening 
their stores of knowledge, to scores of inquiring in- 
mates. To these elevated sources then, we are to look 
for the revival of a refined and sanctified literature, 
and the maintenance of a pure theology. 

Shall not the high themes and venerable doctrines 
of an honored church find an able and resistless advo- 
cacy from the learned peers of the favored alumni of 
her own universities ? May not some of the young 
and enterprising minds that flash upon me to-day from 
a hundred eyes, employ their disciplined powers in 
promoting her moral victories, and, in an after age, en- 
rol their immortality upon the long list of her sainted 
ministers or standard writers ? Who that has confidence 
in the earnestness of her zeal, and the prevalence of 
her prayers, will gainsay the prediction ? 

But our wide-spread membership, apart from their 
ecclesiastical relationships, constitute an integrant por- 
tion of the political power that must wield the desti- 
nies of this great Republic, and must consequently 
contribute their appropriate share in the enactment 
and administration of its laws. Now, as the intelli- 
gence and virtue of a free people are the only sufficient 
guarantee of their liberties, we are solemnly bound by 
the obligations of patriotism, as well as of Christianity, 
to furnish our quota of enlightened minds and sound 
morals for the high places of legislation and dominion, 
to whose august responsibilities many of the young, 
now under our training, will soon be elevated. 

But why should not every department of learning be 
supplied with honorable representatives from our lite- 



21 

rary halls? The luminous, liberal, world-wide, and 
soul-elevating views of Methodism, are favorable to 
the utmost expansion and boldest feats of human in- 
tellect. Liberally endow, then, the existing Institutions 
of the Church. Create them where they are not, and 
rally to their support. Multiply the number of edu- 
cated youth who shall annually leave their halls, en- 
lightened by the wisdom of her sages, and moulded by 
the power of her morals, and throw them upon the 
field, to struggle with the ablestand the best, in all the 
pursuits of mind that dignify and immortalize the 
greatest of our race. 

Then, and not till then, may the Wesleyan harp, 
after its long sleep of an hundred years, be re-strung 
beyond the Atlantic wave, and roll its heavenly harmo- 
nies, under the touch of an American bard, through 
the aisles and arches of our wide spread Zion. Then 
may some of our emulous sons ascend the starry steeps 
where Newton stood, and with Herschel's eye and Le 
Verrier's numbers, detect the revolution of unknown 
worlds — resolve the glittering nebulae in the azure 
deeps of ether, and at last return laden with the tro- 
phies of the skies to pour them in humble homage at 
the Redeemer's feet. But why should I continue to 
particularize ? The universe will be before them, and 
in honorable rivalry with the great and the good of 
other communions and of other lands, there existence 
must be felt in the aggregate increase of human hap- 
piness. Let us not, however, be hastily charged with 
an illiberal and narrow-minded policy when we frank- 
ly announce, that the foregoing remarks have been 
mainly intended for the land of our birth and the sons 
of the South, and that too, in full view of a self com- 
placency, cherished in higher latitudes, which lays ex- 



22 

elusive claim to that " mental activity" and vigor of 
intellect, which is capable of attaining the highest 
destinies of church or state. These arrogant and 
unscrupulous pretensions on the part of the master 
spirits in certain quarters, if harmlessly indulged, might 
provoke a smile, rather than a shaft from the unpre- 
tending subjects of their contempt. But alas ! it stops 
not there. Assumptions of power, either mental or 
physical, are apt to be followed by a corresponding 
attempt at demonstration. A bold and startling exhi- 
bition of this trait of human nature, is fresh upon the 
memory of my audience, and marks a crisis in the his- 
tory of American Methodism ; a crisis whose shadows 
fall gloomily beyond the pales of our own communion, 
and stretch portentously over the length and breadth 
of the land. But enough ; we lay no claim to the 
prophetic afflatus, and shall not attempt to prenunciate 
the events of the perilous future. Our duty however, 
is clear. The honor and the interests of the South 
demand a prompt and generous development of the 
intellectual and moral resources of her people, that 
her claims to position and independence may be vin- 
dicated before the world. An'd why should public 
confidence falter and doubt the triumph of our educa- 
tional enterprizes 1 Are native talents, liberal endow- 
ments and proverbial zeal deemed insufficient to guar- 
antee character and competency to our public instruc- 
tors? Is mind indigenous alone to the North and 
East? Does Genius consent to make her only home 
amid rocky hills and frozen lakes 1 Is her broad pin- 
ion never spread heavenward upon the genial air that 
nurses the palmetto, the "magnolia and the pine? Fi- 
nally, are the tomes of learning and the discoveries of 
science officially incarcerated in trans-Potomac libra- 



23 

ries and laboratories, and interdicted to the world be- 
sides ? No sirs, no ! the sense and soul of my audience 
indignantly repel the degrading insinuation. Then 
why should the current of Southern Capital continue 
to flow unrestrained into the already bloated coffers 
of Northern Institutions, without one exchangeable 
equivalent in return, while our own schools and colleges 
are humiliatingiy drained of their appropriate support ? 
Although, then, we cheerfully award the meed of dis- 
tinction to whom it is due, without reference to soil or 
latitude, we must be pardoned for demurring to the 
claim of exclusive superiority, either on the part of the 
North or East, and for advocating the importance of 
home Institutions, where a sameness of feeling and of 
interest shall exist between the student and his pre- 
ceptor; where no latitudinarian heresies, as violative 
of liberty and the constitution, or subversive of the 
rights and security of the South, shall be insidiously 
instilled into the generous and unsuspecting minds of 
our warm-hearted youth, and where, too, no heartless 
jibes and significant allusions in regard to " Southern 
institutions" and "Southern sensitiveness," shall conti- 
nue to grate upon their ears through the whole term of 
their literary pupilage. 

Then let us, from the Potomac to the Gulf, as with 
the heart of one man, make the high resolve to build up 
the greatness and the glory of the lovely land that cradled, 
us. Let the purses and the prayers of our ostracized, 
but unrecriminating people, lift a pyramid of learning 
upon the plains of the South, which shall brave the 
desolations of rolling centuries. Based upon the eter- 
nal truths of Revelation, and encircled by the white 
tents of Jacob, — with " God and our Country" deeply 
enchiselled upon its sun-lit brow, — let it stand as the 



\>4 

measure and the monument of Southern mind and 
Southern morals, to catch the craze of a grateful and 
admiring world, when we are sleeping with our fathers. 

YOUNG GENTLEMEN OF THE 

AMOSOPHIC AND PHI-GAMMA SOCIETIES : 

Your confidence and partiality have placed me in the 
position which I this day occupy : and in obedience to 
the promptings both of inclination and of duty, allow 
me to express the kind sense which I entertain of the 
honor designed me. And now, before I close, indulge 
me in a few words of parting counsel and encourage- 
ment, which already sit upon my lips, and may never 
again rind utterance before your assembled member- 
ship. 

How rapidly onward sweeps the engine of life with 
its long tram ot passengers to the distant goal. No 
pause — no momentary pause, — no depot upon the 
changeless rout. Softly, silently and certainly as the 
sun oi heaven sinks to his evening rest, we glide on 
to the waiting tomb, and leave the world's crowded 
stage to other actors. 

But "why these grave reflections ■ Pardon me, 
young gentlemen, they are unavoidable. The scene — 
the occasion, inspires them. Although not a patriarch 
m years. I look to-day upon my scholastic grand-children ! 
Be not displeased at the paternity which I trace. Ten 
years ago. your honored and able instructor, owned 
my paternal care, and long sat an attentive and obedi- 
ent son to receive instructions at these humble lips. 
A few years more, and we stood together in the joint 
discharge of professional duties ; and now. in an inde- 
pendent relation, I behold him exercising a fathers 
authority over this large and promising literary proge- 
ny. Well, be it so. "He must increase," and "I 
must decrease" — in the order of successive generations. 



i 

A few more years then, young gentlemen, will throw 
you upon the greal arena of public life to fill the plai 
of pour fathers; you are aware that this is a utilitarian 
age, and the world must, have efficient men. No lite 
rary lounger who trims his mustache more, than bis 
midnight lamp, need expect to be thrown l>y caprice 
or accident into the embraces of the public ; and should 
be, perchance find himself there, meritless and mean, 
like liis bearded exemplar of the dock who has felt 
a momentary elevation in mid iiv by the mischievous 
loss of an ox's horn, will soon prove Ins descent as 
rapid as his rise. No, he that would enter upon the 
Olympic games and win the plaudits of ten thousand 
tongues as he triumphantly outstrips his competitors 
and gains the distant goal, must first pass the training 
of the gymnasium and swell his muscles Tor the n 
Supineness and indecision will inevitably prevent suc- 

;. and leave you to be surpassed \>y others of infe- 
rior claims and less mental calibre. The genteel loi 
U;r<-,r may in vain lean upon the worth of i>y. ances- 

i and prate over his parchments ; the enterprising 
and adventurous will tride his pretensions and 

ire hnrj to his dreams. For when the machinery oi 
the young aspirant's mind has felt the powerful mo 
mentum which industry and zeal generate, like the 
firm tread of the bounding locomotive upon its iron 
pathway, his v<;ry movement inspire >ect, and se- 

cures an open track to the destined goal. " Let him 
is the spontaneous cry from the retiring crowd; 
and the rapid whirl of his burning wheel is soon lost 
in the distance ahead. But it may be that some gene 
rous and aspiring mind, laboring under the p e oi 

erse fortunes, has almost #iven over the attempt to 
be educated, Wouhi to God I could encourage such 



26 

a spirit in the struggle to rise above its embarrassments- 
Young man. success, triumphant success is within your 
reach. The ordeal maybe trying, but bear it. Pover- 
ty is but the anvil upon which many a Damascus blade 
has found its keenest edge. Increased pressure upon 
the electric rubber gives the most brilliant corrusca- 
tions from the revolving cylinder ; and the seaworthi- 
ness and value of the noblest craft is only proven 
when the strain of the storm has tried its timbers from 
prow to stern. But history, ancient and modern, is 
rich with examples to stimulate your waning purpose. 
The great Mantuan bard set out for immortality from 
a baker's shop — Demosthenes from a black-smith's and 
Masillon from a turner's. The immortal English Dra- 
matist was the son of a butcher, — Ben Johnson, of a 
mason, and Burns, of a Scottish peasant. But approach 
the present age and try the living world. The distin- 
guished Faradey was once, in person, an humble hostler, 
and the great French surgeon who now acknowledges 
no living superior in professional skill, tw T enty-frve 
years ago, employed the same hand which now directs 
the scalpel, in wielding the sledge-hammer over his 
father's anvil. Such is Velpeau. But I forbear. A 
glance at our own beloved country, and I am done. 
Passing by the Franklins, and Fultons, and Fergusons 
who have risen above their early fortunes and won a 
worthy fame, I pause a moment to reflect. What 
strange transformations are made in human character 
by the overpowering combination of Genius and Toil? 
Before my young audience were born, an obscure or- 
phan mill-boy weekly plodded with his grist through 
the western swamps, but his soul the mean-while on 
fire for knowledge. Sixty years have passed away, — 
that mill-boy is expanded into the powerful statesman, 



27 

and a continent does homage to the talents of Henry 
Clay. But where am I? the very soil on which I tread 
seems rife with living associations, and would eloquently 
plead the sentiment which I urge. In a neighboring 
farm some forty years ago, a whistling ploughboy mer- 
rily drove his daily team, but "thought on nobler things.' 7 
And now that ploughboy 's voice thunders in the Capi- 
tol and electrifies a listening Senate ; a nation does hon- 
or to the great Southern Statesman, and surely Carolina 
to her own Calhoun. 

In conclusion, gentlemen, while I invoke an outlay 
of your youthful energies, in view of the demands of 
a coming age, I beg you to remember that, to enlarge 
your field of usefulness, the Religion of the Bible should 
sanctify the learning of the school. No substitute is 
available in the great emergencies of life. Without it 
you may illumine, but cannot heat — may shine, but can- 
not burn, — nor ever infuse the warmth of moral life 
and religious hope into the world around you. That 
system of human philosophy which recognizes no ubi- 
quitous and spiritual God, like Queen Catharine's pal- 
ace of ice, may be splendent and lofty, but must for- 
ever be cold, and cheerless, and fragile; — while Chris- 
tianity erects a pile like Solomon's Temple, — grand, 
gorgeous and solid, — radiant with the Shekinah, and 
blazing with the presence ot the Divine Glory. 

HONORED PATRONS OF THIS INSTITUTION :- 
FATHERS AND MOTHERS— 

We go to the home of our ancestors. The starry 
sentinels on high faithfully mark our slow, but steady 
tread to the noiseless sepulchre. We shall soon be 
there. And here — here, are the living, blooming repre- 
sentatives we tender to the world we leave. These, 
these, then, are the instructors, the statesmen, and the 
philosophers of the ensuing age. O! let us prepare 



28 

them for their high responsibilities and Herculean 
toils. The destiny of the nation, and the glory of the 
Church, like the broad heavens upon the shoulders of 
Atlas, must rest upon their future strength. But the 
providential appliances, thank Heaven, stand as thick- 
ly around us as the fallen manna about the tents of 
Israel. And he who would withhold from his immortal 
progeny the pabulum of intellectual and moral life, 
which Heaven has rained around him, may expect his 
hoarded store to be smitten with the worm and the 
stench of God's displeasure. But I catch fiom a host 
of eyes, a look of honest indignation against that dri- 
velling parsimony which would choke up the streams 
of knowledge at the gushing fountains, and deny pos- 
terity the blessed beverage, rather than expend a purse- 
worn dollar to open their crystal sluices, and gladden 
the land with the widening waters. 

No, no ! — I had almost forgotten that I breathe Caro- 
lina air ; that I stand to-day upon the deck of the flag- 
ship of Southern missionary enterprize, who is ever 
ready to turn her brazen prow to the deep, when great 
deeds are to be done. But I need add no more. Her 
broad breast is already upon the wave, and the inter- 
ests of education are surely safe on board that noble 
craft, at whose mast-head floats the white flag of Mis- 
sions, with " The Celestial Empire" glittering on its 
folds. But your sister State, too, from which I hail, 
has launched her benevolent enterprises upon the same 
sea. Head winds and breakers have, for a time, bound 
them upon the coast, but they are now entering upon 
an open ocean and a smiling sky, and claim an hono- 
rable, but affectionate rivalry, in the long career of 
glory. May God speed the joint expedition, and bless 
unborn generations with the cargo. 



